The Child of Bells
by WriterOfBooks
Summary: AN: This story is due for a reboot. Read it if you like, but the story will be changed soon.
1. Creatures of the Night

"Well, I guess you're right. Maybe Andrew was just not good enough for me."

"I don't know why you didn't dump him earlier. He was a total jerk!"

"I was just too lovesick to see, I guess. How about you, Crystal?"

Crystal Dean finally took her gray eyes off of the sunny Florida outdoors that glinted outside the window of her mother's car. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Jessie rolled her eyes and said, "We're talking about how Portia dumped Andrew. Weren't you listening?"

Crystal's friends—Jessie, Portia, and Gema—glared at Crystal. "You've been acting weird all week, Crystal. Are you all right?"

Crystal nodded, obviously preoccupied. "Uh, yeah. I'm fine."

Gema shrugged. "Oh, well. She's Crystal, what can you expect? Oh, by the way, Mrs. Dean—thanks for the ride."

Mrs. Dean looked like Crystal in a lot of ways. She had her daughter's brown hair, squared jaw and petite frame. Unlike Crystal, though, her eyes were brown, not her daughter's grey. Mrs. Dean smiled at Crystal and her friends in the rear-view mirrors. "You are all quite welcome. I wasn't able to go to the beach to celebrate my high school graduation. It's nice to live my life vicariously through you."

Crystal nodded, still thinking. She had a serious sense of déjà vu…she'd never been to this particular beach before, but she still had a feeling that she really had. But when?

Crystal's mother made a right turn, and the beach appeared beyond the windshield. "There it is," Mrs. Dean said. "Silver Sands beach. Crystal has wanted to go here since she was five. It's hard to believe that was almost thirteen years ago."

It was true. Crystal's 18th birthday was fast approaching; only a month away. But Crystal wasn't thinking about her birthday. Her sense of déjà vu was getting stronger.

"Yep," Portia agreed. "Yet you still haven't sent us invitations to your party, Crystal. What sort of surprise do you have in store for us this year? ...Crystal?"

Crystal got out of the car, eyes locked on the ocean in front of her. "I've been here," she whispered. "I've been here before."

She lifted a hand, one finger extended, and slowly gestured to her right. "There's a bit of rock sticking out of the ocean over there," she said, not looking where she was pointing. "And there's a boulder over there." She pointed in the opposite direction.

Gema approached Crystal first and looked where she had gestured. "Yeah, you're right," she said. "You must have seen pictures of this place, haven't you?"

"I saw this in a dream," Crystal murmured, as if in a trance. "I was here…the beach was empty, and it was later at night…but I've been here…"

"Crystal?" Jessie called as she opened the back hatch of Mrs. Dean's car. "Are you all right?"

This snapped Crystal back to reality. "Yes," she said, looking behind her at Jessie and flashing a quick smile. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Good," Jessie replied, "because if you aren't, you won't be able to teach us how to boogie-board. Come on; help me get the boards out!"

Crystal ran to Jessie's aid, pulling out her own turquoise board and Portia's deep blue one. She pulled both boards down to the beach and picked a spot to set up the group's things.

The whole day at Silver Sands, Crystal tried to have a good time. Every time she had that déjà vu, she would just push the thought away and cover it up with a joke and a laugh. But the feeling remained.

When 3:00 rolled around, Crystal aided her friends in packing up and preparing to head back home. By then, she had successfully kept the feeling from returning for a whole hour.

"I had _so_ much fun today," Crystal announced. She turned on the hose near the beach bathrooms and washed the sand out of her hair. "Did you see that last wave? It was _huge!_"

"Massive," Gema agreed. "You must've gone what, 20 feet on that one?"

"I don't know, maybe even thirt—" Crystal suddenly paused midsentence.

"What?" Gema teased. "More déjà vu?"

"No," Crystal said, "but have you ever seen a man dressed like that at the beach?"

Gema followed Crystal's gaze and caught a glimpse of a man. He wasn't decked out for the beach, nor was he in normal, everyday clothes. From what Gema could tell, he was wearing a brown jacket over a stone-blue suit.

"That's odd," Gema said. "Why would he be dressed like that?"

"Crystal! Gema! You girls done yet?" Mrs. Dean called.

"Coming, mom!" Crystal said, turning in her mother's direction. When she looked back, the man was still there, staring directly at her.

Gema took one last look at the strange man before she went to Mrs. Dean. Crystal remained for a moment, eyes still locked with the man's.

"Crystal! Aren't you coming?" Mrs. Dean cried.

"Yes," she replied. She glanced back at where the man was, but nothing was there. Crystal shook her head in confusion as she walked back to the car.

* * *

><p>That night, Portia, Gema, and Jessie spent the night at Crystal's house. Because her father was a major scientist at NASA, Crystal's house was more than big enough for four teenage girls. Crystal's parents were out for the night, but they trusted that the girls were old enough to take care of themselves.<p>

Thunder crackled outside as Portia popped a DVD into the TV in Crystal's room. Crystal sat by the window, staring out at the rain that was now pouring down. Her house was in the middle of the woods, and every time the lightning flashed, the swaying branches of the trees were momentarily illuminated.

"That's interesting," Gema said. "It wasn't raining earlier today. There wasn't a cloud in the sky."

But Crystal wasn't listening. There was a figure in the rain, their shadow projected for a brief second by the lightning. They were facing Crystal's house, staring up at the second floor where Crystal was sitting.

The figure was there for another flash of lightning, then another. Portia was growing impatient. "Crystal, what is it?" she said angrily. "The movie's almost started."

The lightning flashed one more time, and the figure was gone. At that moment, the power went out.

"Ah, crud," Jessie exclaimed. "_Now_ what are we going to do until the power comes back up?"

Crystal fumbled around her bedside table, almost knocking over her lamp. She picked up a flashlight and turned it on, sending a beam of light into the enveloping darkness.

It was at that time that the TV flickered to life. It showed a blank white screen, nothing else.

"That's weird," Portia said.

A man entered the view, his shoulders and face filling the screen. He had brown hair that stuck up all over the place, large brown eyes, and a large-ish nose. He looked oddly familiar to Crystal. . .

"Hey," Gema said. "That's the man we saw at the beach!"

Jessie turned to Gema, a wry smile on her face. "You humored Crystal? Really, Gema?"

Gema blinked. "I. . ."

"I'm sorry," the man said, his accent thickly British. "I'm so, so sorry, but I had to cut the power to give you this broadcast."

"A willing sacrifice, believe me," Jessie grumbled.

"Don't panic—_please_ don't panic—" the man continued, "but something's coming. Actually, a lot of somethings. Just—stay in your homes, keep the lights off, don't go outside. Whatever you do, do _not_ go outside. Stay inside, all of you!"

Crystal looked intently at the screen. The man on the screen seemed to be looking directly at her—not like he was looking directly at a camera, but if he were actually looking at _her_.

"It'll be safe when dawn comes. I'm going to keep the power off. Stay inside until the sun rises. And don't turn on any lights. I'll contact you again. Good luck."

The screen became black again.

Crystal turned the flashlight off as soon as the message was over. "W-what are you doing?" Jessie said. She felt around for the flashlight in Crystal's hands and wrested it from her grasp. "You're going to go on the word of the man on the TV?"

Just as Jessie switched it on again, Crystal stole it back and turned it off. "Yes, actually. Why, are you scared of the dark?" she mocked.

Jessie got a hold of the light. "No," she growled, "but are you sure we can trust him? He could just be some kind of hacker or madman."

"For what it's worth," Gema said, "I _did_ see that man at the beach today. . ."

Jessie turned to Gema and opened her mouth to retaliate, but something stopped her. Every eye in the room turned towards the window. It was as if some kind of unearthly force was drawing their eyes towards whatever was outside in the pouring rain.

A grotesque, half-formed _thing_ was outside, stalking slowly up the road. All Crystal could see of it, from the vague shadows it made when lightning struck, was it was about the size of a small car and had four long, insectoid legs. It made absolutely no audible noise as it moved—it couldn't be heard over the rain, wind, and thunder—but it made some kind of deep rumbling that vibrated through the floorboards and up through Crystal's body.

"What," Crystal whispered, "is _that_."

Jessie put the flashlight down on the floor as quickly as she dared. "What do we do now?"

A bolt of electricity lit up the sky for a split second, illuminating the creature again. Every time there was enough light, Crystal could see that the creature was facing the lightning, but it was always a little bit closer.

"All we can do," Portia reasoned despondently, "is wait, I guess."

"For what?" Jessie said.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door, somewhere downstairs. The monster was still about a hundred yards away, so _it_ couldn't have made the noise. Crystal and her friends tiptoed down the stairs, trying not to trip over anything in the darkness. Peering out the window on the door, the girls saw the distinct shape of a human being, lit for a short moment by the storm.

Everyone looked at Crystal. "Your house," Portia whispered.

Crystal opened the door slowly, but the man on the other side simply brushed past her to get into her house. Crystal looked at the man, the picture of insult, but her expression changed to one of incredulity when she realized who the man was.

"Bit empty," the man said. It was the same voice as he had on the TV—just a bit clearer and louder. "Bit big, too, but it'll do." He turned to face the girls and held up something which, when he turned it on, was seen to be a blue flashlight. It shed the blue glow on his face, lighting up his kind, yet mischievous smile. "'Ello," he said, "I'm the Doctor."

He was very tall in person, and skinny, and wore the same brown coat and stone-blue suit that he had worn at Silver Sands earlier. His right eyebrow seemed permanently in the UP position.

"Who are you?" Crystal growled.

"What do you mean?" the Doctor said, taking something out of his front jacket pocket. It looked like a fancy ballpoint pen, but much longer and thicker, and it was silver with a blue bulb at the end. He pressed a button on the device and the bulb lit up, causing it to make a high-pitched noise.

"I saw you at Silver Sands," Crystal said. "Why are you here?"

The Doctor pointed the silver-and-blue pen-device at the walls, moving it up and down. "I got a reading of abnormally high radiation there. Not enough to kill or even make a measurable difference, but just enough to notice on a radar."

"That doesn't answer the last part of my question," Crystal remarked.

"Why am I here?" the Doctor asked, as if the answer was obvious. He gestured out the front door with his flashlight. "Did you see that thing?"

Crystal opened her mouth to reply, but Portia, noticing the flashlight, said, "You said we can't turn on any lights."

"Yes, I did." The Doctor looked up at Portia, his eyebrow going up even higher on his forehead.

"If we can't turn on any lights," Portia reasoned, "then you shouldn't be able to use a flashlight."

"That's true," he said. "All I know about these creatures is that they don't like light." He paused. "That," he added, "and they have a fondness for the taste of human."

"Great," Portia muttered.

"But," the Doctor continued, "it can't seem to see blue light. If we use only these blue torches, it will seem as bright as the dimmest stars in the sky."

Crystal watched the Doctor with a strange fascination that she could neither understand nor define. Why did he seem so enthralling? He seemed oddly calm and even pleasant, under the circumstances. But he had just barged into Crystal's home and started using. . . whatever that little silver thing was. So why did Crystal suddenly trust him?

The Doctor looked at his watch. "We've got. . . hmm, 2, 3 hours until daybreak? I'm guessing two. Wow, you've stayed up a long time. All you young ladies need to do is sit tight here."

"Young lady?" Crystal said, offended. "I'm seventeen!"

He turned towards her. "Seventeen?" he mused.

After a pause, the Doctor gave Crystal a blue flashlight. "Take these," he said, handing them to each of Crystal's friends as well. "Go to the safest point in your house and stay there."

Jessie, Portia, and Gema each turned to leave, but Crystal said angrily, "We're not going anywhere."

The Doctor gazed into Crystal's eyes for a moment, then sighed and looked away. "Oh, it's always the same way. You want answers, you want to know why those monsters are here, you want to know who, _exactly_, I am besides 'the Doctor.' Am I right?"

"Actually," Crystal muttered, "I wanted to know what you're doing."

The Doctor shrugged and went back to using his blue-and-silver pen device. "I can't tell you any of those things yet," he said, "but I _can_ tell you that you need to go."

"Look," Gema said, "if he says we need to go, then we need to go."

"Why are we trusting him?" Jessie wondered aloud, with a hint of distaste.

The Doctor rubbed his cheeks, then fingered his nose. "It's the face," he whispered. "Now, get to safety. That thing's coming any minute. It's not too fast, I don't know why yet, but go!"

Crystal's friends ran off to the half-bathroom in the middle of her house, but Crystal herself stayed adamantly at the Doctor's side. He let out a breath of exasperation. "If you _really_ want to help me, you can come with me. But if you want to stay safe. . ."

"I want answers," Crystal said coldly, "and I have a feeling I'll have to be around you a long time before you tell me."

The Doctor turned around to face her, his face twisted in confusion. "Why is it you're so hostile? You seem like a nice girl."

"Maybe it's because you come into _my_ house like you own the place, and start using that. . . that. . . whatever-it-is!"

"I don't know if you noticed," the Doctor said, "but I'm trying to help."

"How?" Crystal said. "How can you help? What are you doing? Why are you at _my_ house of all places?"

"Listen, miss. . ." The Doctor paused.

"Crystal."

"Crystal." The Doctor stood up and placed his hands on Crystal's shoulders. He was almost a foot taller than her. "I'm trying to save all of us from those creatures. I don't know what they are. But you have _got_ to trust me. You either need to get yourself to safety. . . or help me."

The Doctor stood there for a moment, his eyes having no lie in them. After a few moments, Crystal said, "I'll help you."

The Doctor patted Crystal on the shoulder. "Good girl. Now, to explain what this is."

He held up his blue pen-device and pressed a button, making the end light up. "This is my sonic screwdriver. It. . . well, it. . ." The Doctor rubbed his head. "It does. . . stuff. Wibbley-wobbley timey-wimey stuff."

"Timey-wimey," Crystal repeated in disbelief. "So, what are you doing with the sonic. . . the sonic whatever?"

"Screwdriver." The Doctor looked at the side of his screwdriver intently. "It appears that all excess power is being drained from this house."

"What?" Crystal said, alarmed. "Why?"

"Oh, don't worry, it's a good thing."

"_Why_ is that a good thing?"

"Well. . . I didn't _really_ need all of that power from the plant downtown to air that broadcast. I shut down all the power to keep people from turning on the lights. I also had to divert the power to my. . ."

The Doctor trailed off. Crystal watched his expression as he slowly turned his gaze towards Crystal's front door. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what—" Then Crystal heard it.

_Scratch-scratch-scratch-scratch. . . scratch-scratch-scratch. . ._

"What," Crystal whispered, "was that?"

_Scratch-scratch-scratch-scratch._ Lightning flashed. A shadow was projected onto the door, a huge, hulking shadow in the window of the door.

"It's here," the Doctor said. Crystal could've sworn she saw a ghost of a smile on his face.

The Doctor ushered Crystal into the family room, off of the front hallway. The Doctor peered around the corner at the front door, a fascinated glint in his eye. There was a long pause before the door rattled as the creature threw its weight against it.

"What's happening?" Crystal said, almost hysterical.

The Doctor, however, didn't seem scared at all. He just stared as the monster crashed through Crystal's front door, staggering into the front hallway, seemingly disoriented. It was massive and black, and had a seemingly ever-changing shape. One thing remained constant, though—its four insectoid legs, its pitch-black color, its eight red eyes, and the spines on its back.

It stepped over the splinters that were once the door, not seemingly able to see the Doctor as he poked his head out into the hallway. The creature had formed a massive, crudely-shaped head on the end of a thick neck at this point, and was waving it back and forth.

It poked its head up into a corner, where the ceiling met the wall, and sniffed something—a spider web. The creature's form shifted, and it had become the vague shape of a spider with four legs and spines on its back.

"Fascinating," the Doctor said quietly.

"What?" Crystal said. "I can't see."

The monster turned its head towards the Doctor and Crystal, its eight eyes blinking in unison. The Doctor slowly lifted his flashlight out in front of him and, flicking a switch, pointed it directly at the monster's face. A ray of pure white light shot through the hall to the monster's eyes.

In fury, the monster let out a deep roar, clawing at its face with its front legs. The Doctor grabbed Crystal's arm and said one word, as loudly and clearly as he could: "Run!"

Pulling Crystal along at top speed, he shoved past the monster in the brief few moments while it was stunned. Crystal tried to keep up, but almost tripped over the remains of the doorframe. "What, are you _crazy?_" she asked. "That thing's gonna _kill_ us!"

"Either that," the Doctor said, dragging Crystal out of the house and into the pouring rain, "or your friends die, too. That thing may not have been able to see us with its eyes, but it could smell us or sense our heat signatures or something."

"Or something?" Crystal said accusatorially.

"I don't know," the Doctor said. He took a turn for the woods, and Crystal followed to the best of her ability. "I haven't been here very long. I just knew that they hate light, they're bloodthirsty, and they can't see blue light. That's all I know."

"You say _here_ as if _here_ weren't this neighborhood," Crystal said.

"It's complicated." The Doctor paused at a large, gnarled tree. He turned first left, then right. "This way," he said, running off again.

"You didn't even say it like _here_ was this _planet,_" Crystal joked.

The Doctor's lack of response as he tore across the underbrush made Crystal wonder if he really _was_ from Earth. The rain was less noticeable now that the trees were covering them, but the water droplets still fell and the lightning was still striking. Crystal heard the monster roaring behind them and crashing through the bushes.

"Where are we going?" Crystal asked, barely able to keep within sight of the Doctor's brown coat.

"The power plant downtown," the Doctor called over his shoulder. "There's something I have to do."

At that moment, the forest began to thin out, and Crystal could see the mass of wire and metal that was the power plant. She'd been to the power plant before on a field trip once, in the fifth grade. It was familiar to her.

But what wasn't familiar was the blue box.

There was a blue box in the middle of the power plant. It was about ten feet tall, four feet wide, and it had an open door in one side. A tangled mess of wires were going inside the box through the door, over which was a sign that said "Police Public Call Box." There were windows around the top of the box, which Crystal didn't understand. On the very top was a blue light.

"What is that?" Crystal said.

"That," the Doctor explained, "is a time machine."

Crystal stopped running and stared at the Doctor. "It's a time machine," she said skeptically.

"Yeah," the Doctor said. "Well, actually, it's called the Time and Relative Dimension in Space, or TARDIS, and its chameleon circuit broke, say, fifty years ago when it turned into a police call box—ah, it's a long story, don't ask—"

"I'm going to stop you there," Crystal said, "because I think that thing's getting closer."

Sure enough, there was the sound of branches breaking. As Crystal and the Doctor looked towards the forest, they saw small trees being snapped in half and bushes rustling. "Time to go," the Doctor said urgently.

There was a hole in the fence surrounding the power plant, and a pair of the strangest-looking wire cutters Crystal had ever seen was lying next to the hole. The Doctor slid through the hole, and Crystal followed cautiously, almost tripping as she stumbled through the hole. The Doctor stepped over the mass of wires as he entered the blue police box—what had he called it? A TARDIS?

The Doctor motioned for Crystal to follow, but she was hesitant. The box looked awfully small for two people. . .

The sound of the creature coming behind Crystal made her choose the TARDIS over death. She raced inside and turned around, shutting the door.

There was a soft, blue glow coming from behind Crystal. "What do you think?" the Doctor said, behind her and much further away than she'd expected him to be.

Slowly, Crystal turned, taking in the inside of the TARDIS. It definitely looked very Sci-Fi, with metal floors, grates, steel arches holding up the ceiling. The inside was much bigger than the outside, and as Crystal looked around, she saw passages that could have led to other parts. There was a contraption in the center of the room, with all sorts of weird gadgets on it and a clear cylinder in the middle, running all the way to the ceiling. The wires running through the door were hooked up to the contraption in the center. It was all illuminated by the light from some strategically placed blue flashlights.

"Wow," Crystal said. "This is pretty crazy."

"Yes," the Doctor said, "it's very crazy."

"It. . ." Crystal spread her arms. "It's bigger on the inside."

Silently, and while Crystal wasn't looking, the Doctor fist-pumped victoriously. "I love it when they say that," he said placidly. "You know, it's the size of a city in here. There's a pool; a library; dozens of bedrooms in any shape, size, and design you can imagine. . . I think there might even be a dance floor in here somewhere playing some classics from the late 4900's. . .

_BANG._ The room shook. The Doctor ran up to the contraption in the middle of the room and used his sonic screwdriver on a screen. It fizzled to life, showing a dim and fuzzy image of several shapes.

"There's more of them," he said grimly. One of the creatures raced towards the camera and smashed into it, sending another shudder through the room.

"It's right outside," the Doctor said, pressing buttons and turning dials. A beep was announced, and something glowed red on a panel. "Three years!" he said incredulously. "We don't _have_ three years!"

"What?" Crystal said, going up to the Doctor as there was another _BANG._ The little red light might have been a warning or something, but whatever language it was written in used circles and dots and curves for letters and words.

"The reason this is hooked up to the power plant is because it. . . broke." The Doctor shrugged. "Something happened, something ridiculously powerful and time-related happened after I touched down. I was able to travel to the power plant on the emergency power, but it'll take a long time to regenerate all of that power."

"Three years?" Crystal said sardonically.

"Three years," the Doctor confirmed. "Ah, why did I have to touch down before ionic power plants were invented? I could have used a new store of self-replenishing fuel. . ."

The room shook again. "Why are they still smashing into us?" Crystal said. "It's not like this thing is gonna break, is it?"

The Doctor shook his head. "I have a feeling that that won't stop them," he sighed.

"They don't have much tact, do they?" Crystal asked. "They could all slam into us together and tip this thing over, but they don't seem to have a sense of teamwork. What are they, anyway?"

Suddenly, the Doctor paused. Slowly, he turned towards Crystal. In his eyes, Crystal could almost see a spark, a flicker of an idea. "Tact," he said. "They don't have any tact, do they?"

Confused, Crystal shook her head.

The Doctor took another look at the screen showing the monsters in their ever-changing forms. "Shapeshifters," he said. "Insectoid. Many eyes, spines, four legs. Think, brain, think, think think. . ."

The Doctor pounded his head with his clenched fists. "They hate light, they can't hunt, they can't shape-shift all the way. . . what are they?"

"They're black, too," Crystal offered. "And they have a taste for human flesh."

"Thank you," the Doctor said shortly.

"I was just trying to be helpful!"

"And you were. Really. Think, think, think. . ." The Doctor looked at Crystal again. "They have a deep roar. They're fast. What else?"

"When it changed forms in my house," Crystal said, "it kinda turned into a spider-looking thing. Why?"

"It looked at a spider," the Doctor said absently, "and turned into it. . ."

Trailing off, the Doctor lowered his hands. The glint in his eyes turned into a flame. "That's it," he breathed. "That's _it!_" he repeated, running to Crystal and grabbing her by the shoulders. "They're Amithenes!"

"Oh, yay, Amithenes, woo hoo." Crystal shook her head, eyebrows furrowed. "What are Amithenes?"

"Nocturnal, insectoid shapeshifters, and a pretty intelligent race, too. They go through the same stages as any normal insect—larva, which can't shape-shift, pupa, then adult. Unfortunately, the babies have a strong instinct to hunt and kill that can pass into their adult stages. So, when they become pupae, the adults load the babies onto a spaceship and send them off with special software that is pumped into their minds to erase their instincts."

The Doctor stepped away, rubbing his head with his hands. "A few years of my time stream ago, I heard about a spaceship of one of these species suddenly running out of power, even though they'd recently shown that their power was at a normal level. The ship had lost power before the babies could be fully brainwashed, so they still had the dominant instinct of killing, but they'd forgotten _how_ to hunt and weren't able to shape-shift fully."

Crystal looked lost.

"They're baby shapeshifters!" the Doctor exclaimed. "They're innocent children, killing vermin because they don't know any better!"

"Oh-h-h," Crystal said. "I get it now."

"But how do we contact the parents?" the Doctor said. "The TARDIS would be able to send the signal, easy, but it's. . . you know. . ."

Crystal shrugged. "The sun's coming up soon, anyway."

"Yeah," the Doctor said glumly, putting his hands into his pockets. "Those things will go crazy once the sun's up. Light sends them into a rage, especially sunlight."

Another spark appeared in the Doctor's eyes. "Sunlight!" he said. "Of course, _sunlight!_ The sun has so much energy, with the proper equipment. . ."

Trailing off, the Doctor picked up a flashlight and ran off. Crystal sighed and hurried after him.

"Nowadays," the Doctor said as he walked, "solar panel technology is the most basic it's been in human history. Pop about, say, ten thousand years into the future—every ounce of sunlight is absorbed by solar panels and turned into energy with very little loss. I've got ten of those panels around here somewhere. . ."

The Doctor walked down a corridor, shining his flashlight on the metal doors lining the hall. He stopped at one and pointed his sonic screwdriver at it. With a high _whirr,_ the sonic screwdriver lit up, and a mechanism clicked. The Doctor slid the door upwards and walked into the room, which looked like a storage closet for alien technology.

The Doctor rifled through the pieces of metal and old-looking machinery. "I put them back here," he said, holding up something that looked like a cross between a small helicopter and a washing machine. "Ah, so _that's_ where I put my trophy. Moving on. . ."

"Why do you need these solar panels?" Crystal asked, propping herself against the doorway.

"I can hook them up to the TARDIS," he said, "and we could charge it up in a matter of seconds. One solar panel is incredibly powerful and can power a whole city for a day on just thirty minutes of sunlight. All you need is the proper kind of cable. . ."

The Doctor held up a large, black rectangle of pitch-black material. When the Doctor shone his flashlight on it, none of the blue light was reflected. "Found them!" he said, handing it to Crystal. It was about the size of a skateboard, but weighed very little for its size. Attached to it was a wound-up cable, maybe three inches thick.

"These," the Doctor said, handing Crystal two more, "are the solar panels I talked about. Just a few of these bad boys, placed in the right position, and the TARDIS will be charged up in no time. Let's take these back to the control room."

Crystal carried five back to the room that they'd first been in. The Doctor plugged the ends of the cables into the machine in the control room and said, "Once the sun comes up, the parents can get the signal, and they'll take the children away and do what they need to do with them. Put them back into artificial cocoons, put them on a spaceship maybe."

The control room rocked. The Doctor paused and looked up. "That's right," he said sadly. "They're still out there."

"What are we going to do?" Crystal said.

One last idea spark came to the Doctor's eyes, but it was more of a sad little ember than an excited one. "I have one idea," he said. "But you're going to have to do exactly as I say, and don't worry about me."

The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on the machine, pointing at various places. "Once the TARDIS comes back online, it'll send the signal to the parents. I'll distract the monsters, you go and place each of the solar panels facing the sunrise exactly. Not tilted to the left or right, or it could take longer, but facing the sun directly. Got it?"

"But—" Crystal looked at the Doctor, her eyebrows furrowed. "You could get killed!"

The Doctor looked deep into Crystal's eyes. "I'll be fine," he said. "I'm going to go out there, making as big of a show as I can, and I'm going to keep the monsters away. Don't worry about me. Hundreds, maybe millions of lives depend on you."

Crystal nodded, and the Doctor gave Crystal the solar panels he was carrying. Because they were so light, Crystal could easily hold them, but she couldn't stop the Doctor from running to the TARDIS door and opening it. He paused, and made eye contact with Crystal one last time.

"Good luck," he said.

"You too," Crystal managed.

The Doctor held up his flashlight and pointed it into the early morning darkness. "HEY!" he called. "OVER HERE!" He ran away from the TARDIS at full speed, not looking back but shining his flashlight white over the Amithenes' faces. They followed him, running as well, maybe faster than the Doctor. . .

When the monsters were a safe distance away, Crystal looked at the solar panels in her hands, then at the thin line of lighter sky that had appeared to the east.

"Well," she said aloud, "I might as well put these in place."

The panels had built-in stands that could hold up the panels. To keep them from blowing away, Crystal positioned branches and rocks around them. She tilted each one very precisely, remembering the Doctor's last request.

It was slow work, because Crystal took great care to make each of them face the sunrise directly. When Crystal looked up, the line of light had grown, and Crystal was certain that the sun would appear any second.

The first rays of true sunlight hit the solar panels moments after she'd finished. Crystal shielded her eyes from the sunlight and turned her face back to the TARDIS. With the door open, she could see lights in the control room slowly come on. It was slow at first, with only a couple lights coming on here and there, but eventually a cheerful glow was emitted by large, domed bulbs lining the walls.

The blue light on top of the TARDIS lit up, and Crystal knew that the message was being sent. She turned around to look at the sunrise, now that her work was done.

A sound like a jet engine came from over Crystal's head. She looked up and saw something dark hovering down about twenty feet away. It looked like a typical sci-fi spaceship—maybe a cross between the USS Enterprise and the Millennium Falcon.

It extended a few arms for landing gear and touched down gently with a loud _hiss._ As the engine died, Crystal walked cautiously towards the ship, unsure of whether or not these were the Amithene adults.

A hatch opened on the front of the ship and out walked three grey-skinned humanoid creatures. They walked upright and had about the same anatomical outline as a human, but on their backs they had elongated spines like one would find on a porcupine. They also had literally almond-shaped eyes with red irises.

The foremost of the creatures, dressed in what looked like a military uniform, regarded Crystal warily. "Are you the one who sent us the message of our missing children?" it said in perfect English. Its voice was masculine, as was its form, so Crystal felt it was safe to say the creature was male.

"Y-yes," Crystal stuttered.

The well-dressed alien seemed to immediately relax. "I am Lethen," he said, "current representative of the Amithene race, general of Quadrant A-7 of the Amithene galactic army, and father of one of the children who crash-landed here. And you are?"

Crystal looked from Lethen to his comrades before saying, "I am Crystal, er, current representative of the human race, and, uh, I don't have any fancy ranking or anything. . ."

Lethen stepped forward. "Where are the children?" he said grimly, his original professionalism returning. "I want to know where my daughter is."

"I-I. . ." Crystal didn't know what to say. She simply pointed. "They went that way," she stated. "The Doctor. . . he. . . had to distract them. . . I don't know where he went. . ."

Lethen nodded stiffly. "Thank you. We will continue to search for them from the skies. We will send a message back to your blue box when we have found them."

Crystal nodded, suddenly realizing how dead-tired she was. "You're welcome," she said, stifling a yawn and trying to remain polite.

Lethen turned on a dime and walked back into the ship. The other two, dressed in all-black uniforms, followed him in a military fashion. The hatch closed, the engine started up again, and the ship lifted off. Crystal, who was already starting to feel horribly groggy, sat down where she was, blinking against the bright sunlight.

Eventually she stood back up and turned dejectedly back towards the TARDIS. When she looked up, there, leaning in the doorway, was. . . the Doctor.

"Doctor?" Crystal said. She scoffed. "I thought you were dead! I thought those Amithenes had gotten you for sure!"

"Nah," the Doctor said, lifting himself off of the doorway and absently kicking at the tangle of wires. "I lured them to a secure place and came back here. And, now that the TARDIS is charged up, I can leave."

"Oh." Crystal took a sudden interest in the grass beneath her. "Where will you go next?" she asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know. Someplace else that needs me."

"Are you always like this? Going off alone, fighting monsters every day, unmasking them for what they really are like some kind of Lone Ranger Scooby-doo?"

The Doctor laughed. "No. But you're right about one thing—I'm usually alone."

There was an awkward silence. Crystal thought about what she'd seen. After knowing that aliens existed, that humans weren't alone in the universe, she couldn't go back to her daily life. She couldn't live on, knowing that there was more to life than routines and schedules and deadlines and death and life.

"Unless. . ." The Doctor smiled. "Unless you'd like to come with me?"

Crystal could hardly believe it. "Wh-what? Go with you?"

"Just one quick little trip," the Doctor said. "Go see, for instance, Mars. Mars in the year 2102, when it's first colonized by man. Or," he added, holding up one finger for emphasis, "we could see the Andromeda Galaxy. Visit the ten top sightseeing spots—which, incidentally, are all in the same solar system."

Crystal shrugged. "Right now, I'm just really tired. So, if I could see one of your dozen or so bedrooms. . ."

"Of course," the Doctor said understandingly. "You've been up a long time. Long day, full of aliens and action. Don't worry." He guided Crystal to the TARDIS control room. "I have just the right destination in mind for tomorrow."

"Okay." Crystal yawned.

The last thing Crystal thought about before she fell asleep was that she was still wearing her pajamas and slippers from her sleepover, and that she didn't know what her friends would think of all this.

* * *

><p>After Crystal was safe in bed, the Doctor went to the control room and unplugged all of the wires. As he brought the cables inside, he took a look at a screen on the engine. "Ah, Crystal," he said, staring at the image. "What mysteries do you hold, girl?"<p>

The screen showed Crystal's face, and her name, gender, residence, various information. The Doctor had looked it up when he'd seen her at Silver Sands. But there was something that vexed him. . .

Under her age, one word flashed:

"UNKNOWN."


	2. New Year's Eve

"Press the wibbly!"

"The _what?_"

"The. . . the wibbly! The blinky thing going ding!"

"You mean this purple-ish thing here?"

"It's _mauve,_ it's the universal color of distress, and yes, press it!"

Crystal struggled up to press the blinky mauve bulb on the TARDIS's engine console, but another bump in the time vortex sent Crystal back to the ground. The Doctor had explained how the TARDIS flew from place to place, time to time, like going through a hallway and through various doors. Except sometimes there were rough parts in the hallway or the doors had, as the Doctor put it, "squeaky hinges."

"Why don't _you_ press the 'wibbly'?" Crystal said, trying to get up for the fifth time.

"I'm holding down the external temporal particle compressor and the photon manipulation and configuration buttons, thank you very much!" the Doctor said.

"The _what?_"

"Trust me, if those names are confusing, you should hear the mauve wibbly's name!"

Crystal managed to get off of the engine room floor and smack her hand into the button. Immediately another bump rocketed Crystal to the floor, and she fell back, narrowly avoiding bumping her head on the engine console.

The engine died down, and the bumping ceased. The Doctor and Crystal started laughing at the exhilaration of the experience. "Oh my," Crystal said, getting up and steadying herself on a railing. "Wow. I've never gone through anything quite like that before."

"Yeah," the Doctor said, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye. "There's nothing like it—at least that I know of."

"So, where are we, anyway?" Crystal asked, starting towards the TARDIS door.

"Take a look," the Doctor said excitedly.

Crystal eyed the Doctor with a look of both playful suspicion and wonder. She opened the door, expecting to just see the power plant that they'd started in. . .

And saw stars.

She stepped out of the TARDIS and into a huge room, twice the size of Crystal's house. The walls appeared to be lined with steel or some other gray metal. The room looked to be in disuse, as the blue carpet that lined the floor was covered in dust, which flew up with every step Crystal took and floated down like snowflakes. But Crystal wasn't looking at the dust.

No, she was looking at the humongous window in one wall of the room. It had to be almost half the size of a football field. And through the window shone tens of thousands of blinking stars, shining against a blanket of deep blackness.

"Oh my gosh," Crystal said, flabbergasted. "That. . . Is that really a time machine?"

The Doctor nodded, going to stand next to Crystal. "Certainly is. And that," he added, pointing, "is the edge of the universe."

Crystal grinned wildly. "Wow," she said, laughing. "What is this place?"

"USS Eagle," the Doctor replied. "December 31st, in the year nine-hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-nine. It's about, say, 10 o'clock, on the brink of not only a new millennia but the year and day that the universe expands to six trillion light-years across."

"Wow," Crystal repeated. "And what's this room here?"

"Disused ballroom, probably. You know, this used to be the capital of America after they got off of earth. This was a ballroom of the president's quarters. The White Rooms, if you will. I forget who the president is now. . ."

Crystal, however, was beginning to wander off. "Where are you going?" the Doctor called, though his tone wasn't worried at all.

Crystal looked around the room, up at the chandelier of glass shards hanging by super-thin wire from the ceiling. A single glowing orb hovered in midair between the shards, but had a dim glow, as if it had just given up on being quite as bright as it used to be. "So," she said, "It's New Year's eve."

"Yep," the Doctor said. "There's a huge celebration going on in the more used decks. Would you like to see?"

Crystal nodded enthusiastically. "Why didn't we go there first?" she asked.

Without answering, the Doctor simply walked away, decidedly in the direction of a metal door. Crystal followed after him.

As they got closer to the door, Crystal heard music and laughter, as if a massive party was being held on the other side of the steel wall. With one smooth motion, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and used it on the door. It slid open, and Crystal walked into the room.

It was bright and lively, compared to the silent elegance of the previous room. Half a dozen tables lined with various delicious-looking foods were stretched around the perimeter of the room, while people danced in the middle. The room was just as big, but had silver and gold metallic streamers hanging from the ceiling, which, as Crystal looked at it, didn't appear to be there.

"The ceiling's a bubble of sorts," the Doctor said when she looked at him in confusion. "It's about, hmm, ten or so feet thick. But almost completely invisible. If light shines on it just the right way, it glints like glass."

Satisfied with the explanation, she continued to observe the partygoers—most of which appeared human. Some were definitely not human, though—she caught glimpses of scaly skin, mandible mouths, catlike claws.

"15 SECONDS!" someone yelled.

The laughter and boisterous conversation paused for a brief moment before everyone chanted in unison, "Thirteen. . . Twelve. . . Eleven. . . Ten. . ."

"I thought you said we had a couple _hours,_" Crystal said, feigning offense. "Not fifteen seconds!"

The Doctor simply raised his eyebrows.

"Three. . . Two. . . One. . . TWO HOURS UNTIL ONE MILLION!" Everyone threw something into the air—confetti, hats, food, cutlery. Crystal laughed out loud at the silliness of it all.

"I've never been to a New Year's Eve party this crazy before," she said.

There was a raised podium at one end of the room. A man in a deep-violet tuxedo went up onto the podium and tapped some microphone out of sight on the podium. "May I have your attention, please?"

The cheering and whooping and hollering stopped.

"Thank you. Now, in honor of it being two hours until the year one million, I would like to introduce Admiral Deniten Tetrifax, current president of the Karyim race."

The man stepped off of the podium and shook hands with another person. This creature, non-human but dressed in human clothes, had a head like a combination between a spire of rock and the head of a lizard. His slanted eyes blinked sideways in response and gratitude.

"Thank you," Admiral Deniten Tetrifax said, in a deep, booming voice. "Hasn't this been a wonderful night?"

A few scattered cheers sounded in agreement. Deniten nodded. "It was my ancestors that built this ship. In order to keep the United States of America a great power in the human race, they would not allow themselves to be landlocked forever. It was my great-great-great-great grandfather who accidentally crash-landed on Earth during World War V. He and his comrades agreed to give the Americans the proper technology to create a new interplanetary armada."

Deniten spread his hands out wide, and Crystal noted that he had four of them—stubby little four-fingered appendages, made of the same scaly/rocky material as his head. "My great-great-great-great grandfather created the blueprints for this station, and his son, my great-great-great grandfather, helped to build it. And look at it now!"

Almost everyone in the hall cheered, while the rest of them had their mouths too full of food to say anything at all. Deniten walked off of the podium and started to talk to another Karyim being—more elegant in the face, and wearing what looked to be a dress.

Crystal was about to go towards one of the food tables, but a human in a security guard's uniform stopped them. "Who are you two?" he said, "and why aren't you dressed for the party?"

Crystal could almost hear the gears in the Doctor's head turning. "Well," he began, "we've traveled a long way. It was sort of last-minute, deciding to come to this party. We needed to be in comfortable clothes."

He gestured to Crystal, who was still wearing her pajamas. Crystal hoped that her face wasn't red from embarrassment.

"Anyway, I have here my identification." He fished a wallet out of his pocket and flipped it open, revealing a piece of plain white paper. The security guard examined it carefully, then his eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh my—" He straightened his hat. "Well, excuse me, your majesties, I didn't mean to intrude. I-I'm so very sorry. I. . . I'll get a dress for the Queen immediately."

He bowed so low his hat almost came off, before he hurried off through the party. "Queen?" Crystal said pompously.

The Doctor looked at the piece of paper in his wallet. "Hmm," he said. "Apparently we're the King and Queen of Space Scandinavia. Hm. Maybe we're lookalikes?"

Crystal looked away, towards the food. She didn't want to think about unblemished paper appearing to be the identification of royalty. She just hoped she wasn't getting even redder. She knew what being the King and Queen of a country entailed. . . She definitely didn't think of the Doctor in _that_ way.

"I'm going to get something to eat," she said, hurrying away before the Doctor could say anything.

Crystal examined the long rows of food. There were meats and vegetables and fruits and breads of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Crystal looked around at the people who were cutting in line, picking up food with their bare hands, and pretty much doing whatever they wanted. Crystal picked up a roll in an odd purple-ish color, and turned it over, revealing "HAPPY 1,000,000!" in gold lettering. Hesitating, Crystal took a bite and realized that it was sweet—not sugary sweet, but sweet nonetheless.

"Why, hello, your majesty!"

Crystal turned around, not responding to the title as much as she was realizing that the words were directed at her. A Karyim was standing next to her—not Deniten, but similar-looking.

"Um, hi," Crystal said, before clearing her throat and saying, "Hello."

"I just had to notice that you are the only person here not wearing such fancy dress. It's rather stifling how elegant everyone is here."

Crystal disagreed entirely, but before she could say anything, the Karyim's milky-green eyes widened sideways. "Oh! Where are my manners? I am Kirraqim Vorati."

Crystal nodded. "Ah. I am. . . Crystal Dean. . . in. . . ov. . . doboff." Crystal didn't know any Scandinavian surnames, so she made one up.

Kirraqim just nodded. "Well, my Lady Deaninovdoboff, I—er, may I call you My Lady?"

Crystal nodded, trying to mask her confusion and amusement at Kirraqim's blustering. "My Lady," he continued, "I would love to introduce you to my friends. I hope you don't mind leaving your husband for a moment?"

"Husb—" Crystal suddenly realized who Kirraqim was talking about. "Oh. Ah. Y-yes, my husband won't mind at all, and neither do I."

Kirraqim smiled—or, rather, his reptilian lips spread wide, revealing rows of pointed teeth. "This way, My Lady."

Crystal was too wrapped up in the spirit of the celebration and the thrill of being millennia in the future to notice that Kirraqim was pulling her just a little too roughly. She was also too wrapped up to notice that Kirraqim had a different accent and way of speaking from Deniten. And she was also too wrapped up to notice that, as he guided her along, he was getting something out of his pocket—a small device that would inject anesthetic poison into her neck.

The last thing she heard before she fell and blacked out was Kirraqim saying, "Oh, My Lady has had a bit too much to drink. Let's get her to our private party room for a rest."

* * *

><p>The Doctor was beginning to get suspicious.<p>

It had been ten minutes. Maybe. The Doctor was never good with keeping track of time, even though he traveled through it almost constantly. He just wasn't used to traveling forwards at the mundane rate of one second per second. But he knew that it didn't take ten minutes for someone to get food.

When he looked around, it was difficult to see over the heads of the various peoples, and Crystal was already shorter than most of the guests. As he walked around, people stopped him every yard or so to ask him how Space Scandinavia was doing, or if the Queen was around, or if he would like to dance. He was entirely capable of dancing. But they were playing "classics" from across the eras, and they'd just gotten to the 2000's and the Cha-Cha Slide. He had no idea how to do that dance. And besides, how fun was it when the directions to the dance _were in the song?_

_No,_ he told himself. _Stay focused._ His priority was finding Crystal, not criticizing "great art." He finally made his way to the food tables, where things were a bit clearer. The Doctor realized that Crystal was nowhere in sight.

The Doctor turned around to see that security guard, gingerly holding up a piece of paper and a pen. "I'm sorry to trouble you, sir," he said tentatively, "but, you see, my wife's always wanted to go to Space Scandinavia, and we've never had the money or the time, so could you please—?"

"What's your name?" the Doctor interrupted.

The security guard looked shocked for a moment before finally saying, "G-Gary."

"Well, Gary, the Queen is missing. I need you to check every security camera, every room, every door, every nook and cranny of this ship. If you find her, you will be very greatly rewarded."

Gary nodded and saluted. "Y-yes sir!"

While Gary ran off, the Doctor went back to the TARDIS. Looking around, he opened the door and went inside. In his haste to find Crystal, he didn't notice that the door from the party room opened just as he stepped into the TARDIS, and Kirraqim stepped into the room. He had known immediately what the blue box was. All he had to do was get it. . .

The Doctor, meanwhile, was tapping into the security system. That had been his plan all along. The only reason he'd told Gary that he needed help was because he needed Gary out of the way.

The Doctor pressed a button on the engine console. It was the "wibbly" from earlier. It was difficult for even him to remember the name—what was it? Temporal fractal dimension fabrication and interelectronic culmination—he'd given up trying to remember it ages ago. He pulled a few levers and twirled a few knobs before the screen on the console began to rapidly cycle through security camera images. Every time a new image appeared, the number in the upper-right-hand corner went up.

The screen rested on the last image. The number said _492,761_. The Doctor sighed and rubbed his temples. It would take forever to find Crystal.

The Doctor cranked a few cranks, flipped a switch or two, slowly moved a few more dials. On what would have looked like a calculator to any untrained eye, he typed a long and complicated code written in about half a dozen different languages. The code that would find Crystal's face. The screen began to cycle through again, more slowly this time.

Before it could find Crystal, something rocked the TARDIS violently. The Doctor fell to the floor. He felt like his brain was being compressed—not a pleasant feeling when your brain is full of stuff. He also felt suddenly nauseous. "What was that?" he wondered aloud, getting up and pressing the wibbly again.

The screen immediately changed to show what was happening outside. A Karyim was walking towards the TARDIS, which appeared to be somewhat. . . sunken into the ground? The view of the camera seemed to have gone down about six feet, so it appeared as if the TARDIS were ten times smaller.

A Karyim could be seen on the screen, though he seemed big—much bigger than even the TARDIS itself.

"A compression field," the Doctor murmured. "Of course. He must have put it on the TARDIS while I was inside."

The TARDIS shook again as the Karyim picked it up. Judging by the size of the Karyim's face as he turned it over to look at, it was now maybe a foot tall. The Doctor hung on for his life as the Karyim put the TARDIS in something dark.

When the TARDIS was done tumbling around, the Doctor was gripping the engine console and balancing precariously on the railing near him. If he looked sideways he could see the ceiling. At the sound of water rushing, he bit back a long string of curses in pretty much every language he knew. The pool must have emptied out into the greenhouse. That would be a huge mess to clean up.

_THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD._ The rhythmic sounds of the Karyim's footsteps paired with the motion of walking sent the Doctor falling again. He managed to grab a hold of the railing and hang on for dear life. "What is going on?" he cried. How was he going to find Crystal now?

The Doctor pushed himself up onto the railing and managed to seize a lever on the console. It pulled down, turning the screen from fuzzy black to cycling through security images again. Every time a human woman was seen, a little grid appeared on her face and head, scanning the image for the proper facial code.

The screen just cycled through the images over and over, never finding Crystal. The Doctor sighed. He needed to get out of the TARDIS to find Crystal on foot. Technology couldn't help him here, especially not primitive, 10,000 th century technology. He needed advancements at least from the 12,043rd century.

The Doctor simply clung to the engine console, hopefully scanning the security images, hoping desperately to find Crystal but knowing in his soul that he couldn't.

* * *

><p>When Crystal came to, she couldn't move her hands or even see.<p>

It was as if Crystal's hands were paralyzed around her wrists. She couldn't feel a thing. Of course, she couldn't see a thing either. She had something over her eyes. She was also sitting in something—a chair, maybe?

Crystal muttered a groan of pain. She couldn't feel anything around her hands, but her head hurt like the dickens. She would have rubbed her head, but her hands. . . well. . .

"She's come to," a hushed voice said. Moments later, whatever was over her head was removed. The lights were so blinding that Crystal still couldn't see for a moment. But as her eyesight adjusted, she saw a masked Karyim standing in front of her with. . . a cake box.

"Why do you have a cake?" Crystal asked, looking around. She was in a room a quarter the size of the party room she'd been in before. There were no furnishings aside from the chair she was in. Looking down at her hands, she saw that there was some kind of device around her wrists that sent electrical arcs into her arms. There was the same kind of device around her legs.

"Come to think of it," she added, "where am I?"

"Private party room," a vaguely familiar voice said. Crystal faced forward again to see Kirraqim walk up next to the cake-box-carrying alien. "And this is no cake."

Kirraqim opened the box and took out a foot-tall miniature of the TARDIS. He held it out in front of Crystal, who cocked her head to one side, staring at the little blue box.

"What—" she began. She looked at it closely. "Is that—"

Kirraqim nodded.

It didn't surprise Crystal now that the TARDIS had been shrunken down to tiny-size. She'd figured there would be some pretty crazy futurist technology on the brink of the 10001st century. It did, however, surprise her when the TARDIS door opened and the Doctor appeared, looking out of breath and a bit tumbled up.

"Crystal!" he called in relief. As he looked at her, his eyebrows furrowed. "You're big."

Crystal looked up at Kirraqim. "Explain this," she said.

Kirraqim placed the tip of his finger on the top of the TARDIS. "I need this," he said. "We all need this." He gestured to his comrades, the other Karyim in the room. As Crystal looked around, she didn't see Deniten among them. "Where's the speaker from earlier?" she asked.

Kirraqim made a high squeak, which Crystal later learned was the Karyim version of an indignant snort. "Deniten? The primitive? He does not even know who we are. He probably believes the lie we tell him—that we are a very large family, with many adopted ones. Do you not see our differences?"

Kirraqim gestured to the other Karyim. The Doctor hung his head out of the TARDIS door and widened his eyes. "Ah, yes, you definitely look different," he said in an assuring tone. Crystal nodded just to keep her head.

"We come from a very different time from Deniten," Kirraqim went on. Noticing Crystal's look, he added, "Ah, you thought that your precious Doctor was the only time traveler, eh?"

Crystal tried to stand up, but couldn't. She'd forgotten the electric manacles. "How did you know the Doctor's name?"

Kirraqim eyed Crystal strangely. "There are stories. Rumors. The Doctor's name is feared by some of the greatest scourges of the universe. We were to become the greatest scourge of all, and yet . . ."

Kirraqim walked in a slow circle around Crystal, holding the TARDIS and looking at it strangely. "Our kind calls them the Farya. The Winged Ones. You would call them . . . angels."

The Doctor held onto the doorway of the TARDIS for dear life. "Oh," he said. "The weeping angels. I've encountered them before."

Crystal leaned forward in her chair, trying to look behind her at Kirraqim and the Doctor. "Weeping what?" she asked.

"Weeping angels," the Doctor explained. His voice barely carried to her ears. "They turn to stone when you look at them, but if you so much as blink, they can get to you and touch you and send you back in time. They feed on potential energy, so to speak."

"Meaning," Kirraqim finished, "they seek out those with great futures and give them the Farya's Kiss. Those innocents will never have those futures, and the angels feed off of what you could have become."

"What made you so great?" Crystal asked. "What made them want to seek you out?"

Kirraqim stopped, standing off to Crystal's left. "Doctor," he said, "you would know. Does the name Kirraqim Vorati sound familiar?"

"Vorati," the Doctor repeated slowly. "Yes," he said finally, "I have heard the name. You were the leader, the elder brother, of the Vorati Brotherhood. You could have taken over the whole Karyim race. . . ." The Doctor trailed off.

"In the year two million," Kirraqim said coldly.

One million years. They had been sent back one million years because they could have been something, someone great. Crystal looked at Kirraqim sympathetically. "I'm sorry," she said. "But . . . why did you need to kidnap me?"

The Doctor remained silent for a time. "The Vorati Brotherhood were not . . . innocent," he said. "They would overthrow the Karyim government. In another time stream, they would have propaganda up to their waists in order to keep the public from realizing that the Karyim were not the reigning race, that the lower classes were being oppressed horribly. The angels—though I wouldn't say it under any other circumstance—have actually saved history from, as Kirraqim has said, one of its greatest scourges."

Kirraqim laughed out loud, a rasp in his throat that made Crystal cringe. "Really? I rather like the sound of that. One of history's greatest scourges. . . ."

Crystal leaned forward in her chair, looking at Kirraqim. "I still don't understand why you kidnapped me."

"The Vorati Brotherhood would be able to be an even greater scourge of the universe with the TARDIS in its grasp," the Doctor said. "Technology like that . . . they would be able to transport their entire race across time in one, maybe two trips. They would be able to wipe out their enemies during the times when they were at their weakest."

Crystal looked back at Kirraqim. "Why. Did. They. Kidnap. Me. You guys have _not_ answered my question."

"You're my companion now," the Doctor said, the edges of his voice tinged with sadness. "I knew it could be dangerous the moment I agreed to take you on board."

"So here come the terms," Kirraqim added. "Doctor . . . Miss Crystal's life for the TARDIS. Look into her eyes and tell her that you can't give the TARDIS up. See the look of pain."

Crystal's heart skipped a beat. "D-Doctor . . . ?"

The Doctor looked resolutely at Crystal. "Crystal," he said, his voice steady and calming, "I am not going to have to give up either today. It's not just your life I am bartering with; it's the lives of everyone on board. And I am going to find a way to both keep the TARDIS _and_ save lives."

Kirraqim laughed again. "Oh, Doctor, you're always the same. You think you can hatch a plan to save everyone just in time. I'll leave you and your friend here to discuss your choice. It's the girl or the TARDIS, Doctor."

At a gesture from Kirraqim, one of the other Karyim brought out a sizable cardboard box and set it in front of Crystal. Kirraqim set the TARDIS on top and motioned for his brethren to follow him out of the room. When the steel door had shut with an ominous _KA-THUNK_, Crystal looked at the Doctor's tiny face.

"Crystal," the Doctor said, "I am going to get you out of here, no matter what."

Crystal shifted in her seat. "I hate to break it to you, Doctor," Crystal said, "but you're currently inside a time machine the size of a shoebox, on top of a cardboard box about a billion times bigger than you. How. On earth. Do you plan. To get. Me out."

The Doctor walked outside of the TARDIS and crouched down next to the edge of the box. "You were wrong," he said helpfully. "This box is approximately 420 times bigger than me, and eleven-point-oh-oh-six times bigger than the TARDIS itself."

He stood up, pulling something out of his coat pocket. It lit up bright blue, and the barely audible whirr emitted by the sonic screwdriver sounded. He walked up to the side of the TARDIS and pointed his sonic at a small black device on its side. After a moment, the Doctor examined the device and his sonic screwdriver.

"It's deactivated," the Doctor said. "But it'll take about . . . hmm, forty minutes to wear off. I'll be back to my regular size in no time!"

Crystal stared back at him. "Forty minutes?" she said. "I don't think we have that long. . . ."

The Doctor looked up at Crystal. "Oh, and I didn't know that?" he said, his voice filled with anger and sarcasm. "We have five minutes _at best_ before Kirraqim returns, and fifteen minutes _at best_ after that and before the Vorati Brotherhood destroy the entire ship and crashes one of the biggest parties in history. Not that the latter is that important, but _lives_ are at stake. And you're treating me like _I don't know._"

Crystal remained frozen in place, staring at the Doctor. "Doctor," she said shakily, "how are we going to get out of here?"

The full weight of the situation had only just now hit her. The Doctor's eyes, still visible though his face was so much smaller, glinted at Crystal. "Don't worry," he said. His tone was now much quieter. "I promise to protect you, no matter what. I will personally see to it that you do not die on December 31st, 999,999." A wry smile spread across his little face. "Trust me. I'm the Doctor."

Crystal had to smile herself. "All right. Tell me what to do."

The Doctor put his sonic screwdriver back into his coat pocket, grinning like a madman. "All right, this is the plan I've come up with. . . ."

* * *

><p>Kirraqim walked back into his private party room after a bit of socialization. He thought it was interesting how much these post-Earth women liked aliens, especially when drunk. He wiped a bit of—what do you call it—<em>lipstick<em> off of his cheek as he looked at the little girl that the Doctor had been traveling with. What was her name? Crystal. Crystal Dean, most likely.

Her head was bowed, and she was sobbing quietly. Kirraqim waited for his brothers to come in and for the door to close before he allowed himself a smirk. "Well, well, well. Crystal Dean. And what was your precious Doctor's choice?"

Crystal looked up, her grey eyes now suffused with tears. "He. . . ." Her voice cracked, and she looked away. "He . . . he decided to give me up. For the sake of the universe."

Kirraqim, he had to say, was surprised. He'd fully expected the Doctor to give up the TARDIS for his companion. He'd been known throughout history by his enemies as a thing to be feared, but by his allies as merciful and loyal.

"All right," Kirraqim said. "I am fully astounded. But, Crystal Dean, the Doctor was probably expecting me to bluff. I am of the Vorati Brotherhood." He took a small, concealable gun out of his pocket. "We never go back on our promises."

He raised it slowly, a shout of victory preparing to come to his lips, but there was a strange grinding and whooshing sound. Before Kirraqim could look, something slammed him in the side of his head. He landed sideways, already starting to black out, but his brothers came immediately to his aid. One looked up, the closest to Kirraqim in age, and saw the small blue box that had knocked out his brother.

Crystal grinned, standing up. The electric handcuffs that Kirraqim had put on her simply fell around her, and she said, "The Doctor doesn't go back on his promises, either."

Kirraqim's brother looked up at Crystal. "How. . . . How. . . ."

The TARDIS landed carefully on the ground and stopped, and the little Doctor came out. He looked up at Kirraqim's brother, his fists on his hips in a gesture of self-satisfaction. "That compression device was also designed to keep me from using it," the Doctor said. "I managed to disable the device with this." He held up his sonic screwdriver. "Next time you have a plan to stop a Time Lord, make sure it's sonic-proof."

Kirraqim's brother stood up slowly. "As if incapacitating my brother would make it impossible for us to succeed," he said condescendingly. "I am Dorya Vorati. Kirraqim may be the leader, the face of the Vorati Brotherhood, but I am its true head."

Dorya took his own gun out of his pocket and raised it quickly, pointing it at Crystal. "Hand over the TARDIS," he said. "I really will shoot her."

The Doctor held up his hands to his mouth and leaned backward, as if doing so would give his voice extra leverage. "No-one is going to die today," he said. "You are not going to shoot Crystal because, guess what?"

Annoyed, Dorya moved his aim to the Doctor and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened, just a little _fizz_ of electricity. He swore under his breath.

"This ship has disabled guns!" The Doctor laughed victoriously. "The security system, I have discovered, pinpoints the mechanical and/or technological devices that activate the launching system of the bullet or, in this case, the potentially fatal electrical pulse."

Crystal looked blankly at the Doctor for a moment. "Is that technobabble for 'You can't shoot us?'"

Dorya swore again, throwing his gun aside. "This does not mean that we are defeated. A few broken guns and a passed-out leader will not destroy us. We can still bring you down with brute force."

The Doctor regarded the other Karyim, who were just ten yards away and advancing. "Ah, but that's the issue, isn't it?"

The brothers paused. "What?" Dorya said.

"I read up on your brotherhood. Your strength isn't organic, is it?"

Dorya turned on his brothers, those who had paused. But they hadn't done it willingly; no, they were stopped mid-stride, still preparing to put their weight on their outstretched foot. "The Karyim are not a very robust race," the Doctor went on. "They are thick-skinned, yes, but do not have a lot of strength. So, when the Vorati Brotherhood intended to take over the whole race and even the universe with, as you said, _brute force,_ you needed to add on some mechanical . . . stuff.

"But you have forgotten one thing, Dorya." The Doctor spread his little hands. "You've gone back in time. It's been, what, five years since you came back? Any anomalies in the system couldn't have been detected. And now that they all are corrupt, the security system has jammed them up beyond repair."

Dorya looked absolutely furious. He shoved past his brothers, knocking them over, but before he could get to the TARDIS and the Doctor, the door opened, revealing the security guards with electric handcuffs.

The Doctor put his hands into his pockets. "Checkmate," he said triumphantly.

Dorya, his expression full of disbelief, didn't even fight against the security guards as they arrested the entire Vorati Brotherhood, even taking Kirraqim on a stretcher to attend to his head. He didn't seem to listen as Gary the security guard told him to do exactly as they said and to not try anything clever. He just stared at the Doctor and Crystal, looking like he'd had the worst defeat in his entire life.

* * *

><p>The Doctor could have flown his TARDIS to the room they'd landed in, the old ballroom, but one, it would take too much work, and two, what was the fun in that?<p>

Instead, the Doctor told Crystal to put the TARDIS back into the cake box. She carried it carefully to the old ballroom and made sure that there was absolutely no-one in the room before she opened the box and set the TARDIS down.

"How much longer?" she asked the Doctor as he came out.

The Doctor smoothed down his suit. "If my calculations are correct, it will be another . . . hmm, thirty minutes before I return to normal size. We've got plenty of time."

The Doctor and Crystal stood in silence for a while. Eventually, Crystal sat down, cross-legged, on the dusty floor. "Hey, Doctor," she said, "earlier you said something about a Time Lord. You said something like _if you try to stop a Time Lord._ What's that all about?"

There was another silence. "I . . ." The Doctor sighed. "I'm . . . not human."

Crystal waited expectantly.

"I'm part of a race called the Time Lords. We used to be humans, yes. But exposure to time travel has left us changed. We have two hearts, for one thing. Inhuman stamina. We can withstand amazing amounts of radiation. It's very hard for us to die."

"How old are you, then?" Crystal caught herself. "If it's not too rude to ask."

The Doctor smiled vacantly, not meeting Crystal's eyes. "I don't even know myself. 900 to 950, maybe? I'm old. Very old."

Crystal laughed. "You don't look it."

The Doctor finally managed to look up at Crystal. "I take good care of myself," he said. "It helps if you don't fight aliens every other holiday."

They shared another laugh. Crystal suddenly realized that the Doctor wasn't joking. He had a sort of ageless, timeless quality to him. His eyes looked like they'd seen so much, like they had seen too many adventures. He was amazingly brilliant, which Crystal had earlier credited to his overall nerdiness, but that didn't account for his ability to run all the way from Crystal's house through the woods and still lead the Amithenes away. She hoped she never had to be in an incident where his radiation-proof attribute had to be shown.

"Where do the Time Lords come from?" Crystal prompted. "Are they some kind of future race, not to be seen for another billion years? Or do they have their own home planet or something?"

The Doctor's eyes almost seemed to glaze over with sadness. He looked away. "We have our own planet. Gallifrey. It . . . it was so beautiful."

Crystal's imagination screamed for a more in-depth description that _it was so beautiful,_ but the Doctor's tone and the way he avoided the topic told her that she shouldn't press further. She just remained quiet.

At one point, the TARDIS suddenly started to shake. The Doctor ran away as fast as he could while Crystal merely strolled a few feet back. The TARDIS grew back to its original size in a matter of seconds.

The Doctor explained that the TARDIS had self-regenerating and self-healing properties that helped it to grow back sooner that the Doctor himself. He promptly began to go off on a tangent about the TARDIS, talking about all of the different rooms it had. Crystal tried to keep up, but a lot of it sounded like random technobabble and frequent use of the word "stuff."

Eventually the Doctor grew back to his normal size. He clutched his stomach, twisting up his face a bit.

"Are you all right?" Crystal asked worriedly.

"I'm fine," the Doctor said. "Just fine. The compression field is _not_ good for your stomach."

The noise in the other room stopped for a brief moment. The partygoers started to chant: "Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . . ONE HOUR UNTIL ONE MILLION!"

There was a lot of cheering. Crystal looked back at the door. "Should we go join the party?" she asked. "We have one hour."

The Doctor smiled. "Sure. Let's have some _fun_ for a change."

As they went to join the party, Crystal laughed. "I'm not _that_ boring, am I? Or is it _you_ that's boring?"

They shared a laugh and went into the room, where a cloud of confetti was still falling. Everyone—humans, Karyim, weird dog-people, and overgrown insects alike—had the same expression of happiness and excitement. Crystal thought it interesting that, even though they were all very different, an event such as this could bring them all together.

It was a fun rest of the night. The Doctor showed that he actually _was_ able to dance—even if it was in a manner very embarrassing to Crystal. She declined all offers to dance. At first she was confused by them, but then she remembered that she was supposed to be the Queen of Space Scandinavia.

The final countdown came just an hour later, but it felt like minutes to Crystal and the Doctor. They chanted along with the rest of the crowd. "Three . . . two . . . one . . . HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

There was an even more massive veil of floating bits of paper and streamers as people found kissing partners and gave them a big one right on the lips. The Doctor and Crystal stood awkwardly next to each other, not looking at each other while people cheered and kissed and cheered again.

"Do they still sing Auld Lang Syne in the year one million?" Crystal asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "I've never been to the new year before. I don't even know."

Then everyone became quiet. All was almost completely still for a few brief moments before a beautiful chorus sounded. _"Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind . . ."_

Crystal grinned at the Doctor as they both joined in. "Should auld acquaintance be forgot and days of Auld Lang Syne. . . ."

The Doctor raised his cup of some kind of gold-ish punch. "To the new year."

Crystal tapped his cup with hers. "To the new year!"

* * *

><p>"And where's the wardrobe room?" Crystal asked, putting her novelty 1,000,000 glasses on the TARDIS console.<p>

"Down that hall and after three turns," the Doctor said, pointing. "You can't miss it. It has a huge sign."

Crystal smiled. "Thanks!" She ran off.

The Doctor sighed. "Oh, that Crystal." He tapped the screen on the console, still showing a frozen security camera image of the party room. It showed Crystal's face. She was beaming widely, about to take a sip of her drink. There was a bar at the bottom of the screen, saying "CRYSTAL DEAN FOUND."

The Doctor pressed a button, and the bar grew to fill the whole screen. Her information came up with the picture of her almost-laughing face. Her gender was correct, her residence, and location. But still under her age was that one word: "UNKNOWN."

The Doctor shook his head slowly. There were many things he couldn't tell Crystal. This little bit of information was one of them.

And another was the real reason he'd decided to take her aboard the TARDIS. . . .


	3. The Sound of Silence

It was a relatively normal day at the prestigious technological school Lester Vine Institute. Kenneth Vine, great-grandson of the man who'd founded it, lifted up his soldering visor and waved his hand in front of his face to clear away the smoke. "Mr. Days," he said, "are you sure this thing is going to work?"

His professor, Mr. Days, smiled. "I'm positive," he said. "We just need to find a proper target.

Kenneth ran a hand through his blond hair and looked at his creation. It was a hollowed-out cylinder of metal about two feet long with a small computer screen attached to the side and a handle and trigger. The computer screen showed vague shapes in different shades of blue, but nothing else.

Kenneth put down his soldering torch and held up the device. "The military will be thrilled with this," he said after emitting a low whistle. "How does it work?"

"It fires a pulse of energy that envelops the target object, veiling every sound it makes and rendering it completely invisible to any kind of radar." Mr. Days tapped the screen. "Well, except the one on this screen. We can still hear and see them."

Kenneth held up the device and looked through the scope. "What should we use it on?"

"I was thinking about using it on an animal first," Mr. Days said. "This technology is still unstable. We could seriously harm someone with this."

He went to the window of the laboratory and opened it, searching for a raccoon or bird or something. The forest outside of Lester Vine Institute stretched on for seemingly miles, far across the Washington border and into Canada. "Oh, look. Try using it on that squirrel there."

Kenneth went to the window and looked at the trees. Because the laboratory was on the third floor of the building, he could see the tops of the trees easily. He found a squirrel and took aim.

Mr. Days looked on proudly, his ancient blue eyes crinkling around the corners as he smiled. Suddenly his smile disappeared as he saw two figures moving through the forest. A girl, dressed in a teal turtleneck and blue jeans, walking through the forest and looking up at the trees. Behind her, a man in a brown jacket and crazy brown hair was looking at something in his hands.

"No, Kenneth, don't shoot!" Mr. Days cried, but it was too late. Just as the girl walked by the squirrel, Kenneth pulled the trigger, sending the energy pulse straight into her. . . .

Mr. Days turned and stared at Kenneth. Kenneth looked incredulously down the scope at the squirrel, still entirely visible, scampering away. But the girl was nowhere to be seen.

Mr. Days's mouth dropped open. "Kenneth," he stammered, "what have you done?"

* * *

><p>MINUTES EARLIER<p>

* * *

><p>Crystal pressed one last button and looked at the Doctor from across the TARDIS engine console. "Why do you need me to help you fly this thing?" she cried.<p>

"The TARDIS was meant to be piloted by six Time Lords at once," he replied, reaching up and spinning a dial around. "Two people is difficult enough. Try doing it by yourself. Oh, turn that green-ish dial over there up to the six—no, the seven!"

Crystal did as he asked. "You still haven't told me where we are yet!"

The Doctor, stretched over the console to hit five different buttons at once _and_ a lever, stood up slowly, his back making suspicious cracks. "The year 2056," he said. "Brazil. The opening of the grandest theme park in the world yet. They have a Ferris wheel one mile in diameter."

"Really?" Crystal started for the door, looking back at the Doctor. "What else?"

"A roller coaster that goes so fast, three seconds of time are literally lost." The Doctor wiggled his fingers as if to show time's disappearance. "An object going faster than another object will have time travel more slowly. Theory of Relativity, that's why they call the roller coaster the Einstein. . . ."

The Doctor trailed off as Crystal opened the TARDIS door. There was no roller coaster. There was no Brazil. There was a temperate forest and a chill in the air.

Crystal gripped her arms tightly. She was wearing a baby-blue turtleneck sweater and blue jeans, but the temperature difference from here to the TARDIS was very evident. "I may be wrong," she said, "but this isn't Brazil."

The Doctor squinted up at the sky. The sun shone in the very center of a clear blue sky. He took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it around, pressing the button. Upon close examination of the sonic, he announced, "Washington State, somewhere near the Canadian border. There's a successful college somewhere around here, though it won't become particularly famed until 2057 for its invisibility program."

Crystal was walking ahead, and the Doctor followed her subconsciously. "This place is beautiful," she said, trying to look on the bright side. "I mean, it's no Brazil, but it's . . . peaceful."

The Doctor nodded, still looking at his sonic. "You know, now that I think about it, it may have been this year that the college became famed. I don't quite remember."

Crystal didn't respond. She was too busy looking around at the wildlife. She saw a raccoon a distance away, watching her warily but with curiosity. A flock of birds took to the skies as she walked by. She saw a squirrel on a tree to her left, sitting on a branch and eating something.

"Hey, little guy," she said, grinning at the squirrel. "Squirrels are still the same in the year, what is it, 2050?"

"2056," the Doctor corrected.

Crystal stopped mid-stride. Something had hit her in her side so hard that the wind was knocked out of her. She looked over and saw nothing. Confused, she collapsed, gripping her side.

"Crystal?" the Doctor said, finally looking up.

"Ow," she groaned, struggling for breath. Her breaths came raspy and hard, as if her lungs were ten times smaller. She lay in a fetal position for a while, not getting up or moving.

"Crystal?" the Doctor repeated. He put away his sonic screwdriver and looked around wildly.

"I'm fine." Crystal finally managed to sit up. She shook her head slowly. "What was that?"

"Crystal!" the Doctor cried. "Where are you? Crystal!"

Crystal stood up. "Um, Doctor?"

The Doctor looked straight at Crystal, but his eyes simply passed over her. Crystal shook her head, laughing. "Is this your idea of a joke?" she said.

The Doctor swore. "Crystal, this is not funny! If this is a joke. . . ."

Crystal went up to the Doctor and tugged on his arm. "Doctor, stop it," Crystal said. "I'm right here."

The Doctor looked down at the place where Crystal was holding his arm. All he saw was an imprint in his sleeve. "What. . . ." He stood still.

Crystal gave his arm a firm shake. "Doctor," she pleaded.

The Doctor tentatively put a hand to the imprint, but felt something soft and slightly warm. "Interesting," he said in awe. "Crystal, if this is you and you can hear me, squeeze my arm once."

The pressure on his arm intensified for a brief moment.

"Wow," he breathed. "That's snazzy."

Crystal looked at the Doctor's face. "Doctor," she whispered. "Please."

The Doctor looked around for some kind of disturbance in the air or in the light. "All right, Crystal, I can neither see nor hear you. According to what I've seen of this time stream before, the invisibility program was designed to affect the target and anything the target was wearing or touching at the moment of impact. We have to find this college, the, ah, what was it called? Lester Vine Institute!"

Crystal nodded, squeezing his arm again. She was scared, very scared. If the Doctor couldn't help her . . . she didn't know who could.

The Doctor put a hand on where he thought Crystal's hand was. He moved his hand up her arm and to her shoulder. "Crystal, I'm guessing that's your shoulder. Stay close and keep hold of me. I don't want to lose you."

Crystal squeezed once more. The Doctor held up the sonic and the end lit up bright blue. "Lester Vine is somewhere to the east," he said, "through this forest. Follow me and _don't let go._"

As Crystal followed the Doctor, gripping him tightly, she was reminded of her first adventure with the Doctor, when he'd come to Florida. They weren't running _from_ anything at this moment, though; they were running _to _something. She wondered if this institute would really be able to help her, or if they really were the cause of her invisibility.

It took them all of five minutes to reach the large, square, white building. Crystal thought that it was weird that a college would be in the middle of a forest and not in some old college town.

"Lester Vine Institute," the Doctor said. "I hope you're still there, Crystal, because if there's any place on earth that can help you, it's this building here. This is only the laboratories, though. The actual _college_ is seventeen-point-four miles away."

Crystal nodded, but suddenly remembered that the Doctor couldn't see her.

There was a parking lot in front of the building, right next to the entrance. There were absolutely no cars except for a sleek-looking, lime-green pickup truck. Even though its design was way beyond that of any 2011 truck, it looked old.

As the Doctor and Crystal approached the entrance, the glass automatic door opened and a bespectacled old man and a blond younger one rushed out, in the direction of the pickup truck.

"I pinpointed the area of impact," the older man was saying. "Hopefully we can get there before any further harm is done. Any sane person would stay in one place when the other has suddenly become invisible."

Crystal looked at the Doctor. As if he could sense her gaze on him, he said, "Those are the men. Hey!" he called. "Over here!"

The blond man looked up first. "Professor," he said.

The other paused, hand rested on the door handle. "Oh!" he said, walking towards the Doctor. "Hello. Do you happen to be missing someone?"

The Doctor moved his hand vaguely in Crystal's direction until he found her head, then patted it lightly. "Not missing, exactly."

The old man extended a hand, which the Doctor took. "I am Professor Vincent Days, and this is my best student, Kenneth Vine, great-grandson of our institute's founder." He beamed proudly.

The Doctor nodded, apparently trying his best to look impressed. "Interesting. I'm the Doctor, and my friend Crystal is over here somewhere."

Kenneth smiled generally towards Crystal. "Um, hello," he said.

Crystal blushed, glad that she was invisible. Kenneth had an almost Canadian accent, which she'd always found cute.

Mr. Days patted Kenneth on the shoulder. "I'm sorry about your friend," he said. "Mr. Vine here was testing out our most recent invention, an—"

"Invisibility device?" the Doctor interrupted.

"I . . ." Mr. Days cleared his throat. "So, you have read about us in recent scientific journals?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrow even further than it was usually raised. "More or less."

Mr. Days held out an inviting hand. "Please, come in. We're not usually open to the public, but we can make an exception today."

The Doctor nodded again, smiled. "Of course."

Mr. Days didn't take them on the grand tour of the facility, thankfully. He took them straight to the third floor, where the invisibility device had been constructed. Mr. Days picked up what looked like a cross between an oversized gun and a cannon and pointed it at the Doctor.

"I'm not going to shoot," he said in response to Kenneth and the Doctor's panicked faces. Keeping the scope pointed at the Doctor, he looked at the screen on the side of the device. In the midst of the blue shapes, there was a bright red blotch in the shape of a girl, who Mr. Days assumed to be the Doctor's friend. "All right, Crystal," he said, moving a switch on the side of the screen. "You can talk and we can hear you."

Crystal sighed in relief, and she heard her sigh played back over the screen. "Thank goodness," she said.

"Are you in any pain?" Mr. Days said.

Crystal shook her head, and the image on the screen mirrored her. "No. I had the wind knocked out of me when I got hit, though."

Mr. Days nodded. "I'll admit, I hadn't expected it to work so well on the first try. I'm sorry Mr. Vine hit you. He was aiming for a squirrel."

Crystal tried not to sob. "I'm scared," she said, her voice almost cracking. "I don't want to stay invisible forever, having to be heard over some stupid little screen."

The Doctor found Crystal's shoulder again and rubbed it reassuringly. "Don't worry, Crystal," he said. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and pointed it at Crystal. After a few seconds of the high whirring that was now familiar to Crystal . . . absolutely nothing happened.

The Doctor stifled a curse. "It affected the atoms in and around her body completely," he said. "I haven't seen anything like it. . . . I've seen perception filters that make you _think_ they're invisible, but literally all light passes through her."

This did nothing to help Crystal's panic. "What—why—does that mean—will I be able to turn back to normal?" Her voice was shaky over the screen's speakers.

The Doctor set his jaw resolutely. "I am going to help you, Crystal," he said. "I will."

At that moment, the ground shook.

Crystal steadied herself on the Doctor's arm. "What was that?" she said.

But her words never reached the Doctor's ears. The screen on the invisibility device wasn't working. It showed only static and gave a few fuzzy syllables that might have been Crystal, then blacked out completely. Then the lights illuminating the room went out as well, leaving the sun streaming through the window as the only light source.

Mr. Days tapped the screen, but the Doctor pushed him aside and used the sonic on it. Mr. Days stepped back. "What are you doing to it?" he cried.

"I'm trying to fix it, thank you very much," the Doctor said angrily. "If you're opposed to me _helping my friend,_ then please, speak up."

Neither Mr. Days nor Kenneth said anything until the Doctor said incredulously, "It . . . it's as if it never worked in the first place. The circuits are completely wiped."

Mr. Days shook his head slowly. "I . . . I don't understand," he said.

The pressure from the Doctor's arm disappeared. He looked around, looking for any imprint on the floor, any slight shadow, any movement of an object. There was a soft growling sound over to the Doctor's left, and as he looked, some kind of very expensive-looking device crashed to the ground.

The Doctor held up his sonic and pressed the button. A low sort of shriek, as if in pain, came from somewhere close in the room. Rustling. The Doctor looked around cautiously, and the sound of foreign breathing disappeared.

"Is she still in here?" Kenneth asked quietly.

The Doctor slowly edged towards where the shriek of pain had come from. "Crystal," he said, "if you're here and you can hear me, then . . . ah . . . pick up a pencil, or something."

A few feet away from the Doctor, a pencil hovered in midair, wobbling as if the hand that held it were shaking.

The Doctor took off his coat hurriedly and moved over to the hovering pencil. "We won't be losing you again," he said, holding out the coat. An invisible hand took it, and it moved around until Crystal was obviously wearing it.

Crystal stood up, and the jacket shook violently. The sleeves went up to Crystal's face, and she bent over.

The Doctor put a reassuring hand on her shoulder as sobs racked her body. "Crystal," he said, "we are going to get that device working again. We need to figure out what those creatures were."

He looked up at Kenneth and Mr. Days. "How did you make that little computer?"

Mr. Days shrugged. "I . . . it took weeks to build it. I don't know how much time we have."

"We don't have _weeks._ Crystal was attacked by something, and if it's coming back, then we have a day at most, minutes at least. You have the machinery here; just tell me how you programmed it."

Kenneth and Mr. Days looked desperately at each other. Kenneth timidly met the Doctor's eyes. "The camera should still have the software to pick up her heat signal," he said. "That's the visual. But the sound is a bit tricky, even trickier than getting the invisibility to affect her voice."

"I don't care how tricky it is," he said impatiently. "I've completely rewired the entire energy system for the Vagragalda home planet in under six minutes with only the aid of a part-time electrician. 'Tricky' I can do."

He pushed past Kenneth and pried open the computer with his bare hands. The screen separated from the rest of the computer, and he examined the circuit board closely. "Mid-21st-century technology, bah. I need a pair of tweezers."

He held out a hand expectantly as Kenneth fumbled around for a pair. He put it in the Doctor's outstretched hand, and the Doctor moved around a few wires, clipped a few things off of the circuit board, added a few scraps of metal that were lying around. He used the sonic on the computer and closed it up, seeming satisfied.

"Crystal," he said, "say something. Anything at all."

Crystal's breaths were shaky over the speaker. "Can you hear me?" she whimpered.

"Yes!" the Doctor said victoriously. Her image on the glowing screen was not in the odd blobs of orange and blue, but instead in real color, though Crystal's form shimmered strangely. "We can hear you just fine. And we can see you, too."

He went over to where Crystal was standing and scanned her with the computer. He pointed the gun at her, and Crystal flinched. Groaning, the Doctor snapped the computer off of the gun and once again brought out his sonic.

"There," he said. "Now we won't have to lug around that huge thing." He moved the screen so that her image filled it.

She had bite wounds on her arms and legs. The Doctor's jacket was slowly being seeped with invisible blood. Crystal looked horribly shaken up, and she trembled.

"Oh," the Doctor said. "I see." Still pointing the screen at her, he felt her arm and tenderly touched the bite marks. Crystal took a sharp breath in pain.

"Sorry," the Doctor said. "You seem to have been bitten by more than one creature. The patterns of teeth are completely different in each place. Could you see them?"

"No," Crystal replied, voice cracking. "But I could hear growling . . . and snarling . . . I could feel their teeth, they had a lot of teeth . . . I could see where they bit, but I couldn't see their teeth. It was so scary . . ."

She began to cry again. The Doctor put an arm around her shoulder. "It's all right, Crystal," he said. "I just need to figure out what attacked you. Let's see, it was invisible, and had lots of teeth. There are exactly twenty-eight species in the universe, across time and space, that can turn invisible. Fourteen of them are carnivorous, and ten of _those_ have teeth."

"There were lots," Crystal said. "They weren't very big, though. Doctor, you can help me, right?"

The Doctor gave her a look. "Not very large," he mused, "and they hunt in packs . . ."

The Doctor leaned back on a table for a moment, fingering his chin. "Four of those species hunt in packs, and _one_ lives on Earth—"

There was that familiar spark of intelligence and glee in his eye. "Of course!" He clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "Egnia Palronis! And before you ask, oh so dimly, _well, what the heck is the Egnia Palronis,_ it's what attacked Crystal."

He held up the screen and moved it around, giving the room a quick scan. Mr. Days cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to be so dim," he said, "but _what the heck is the Egnia Palronis?_"

The Doctor looked as if someone had asked him what _time travel_ is. "Small, wolf-like creature, built like a pit bull. Completely blind. Hunts by smell. Excellently designed, though; two pairs of nostrils, feathery antennae where their eyes would be, with a mind more a part of a puzzle to work perfectly with the minds of other Palronis in its pack."

Looking thrilled that his friend was in danger, he put the screen absentmindedly on the table he leaned against. "But they're not very bright, even collectively," he said. "Incredible battle strategy, but they can't cut power or cause a rumble like that. Now, what could cause that rumble, that blackout? And how could a pack of animals more intelligent together than apart synchronize their attack with both things?"

"You're asking an awful lot of questions, eh?" Kenneth said. "Why are you asking those questions out loud when everyone in here is dumber than you?"

Mr. Days coughed indignantly and opened his mouth to protest, but the Doctor silenced him with a look. "Because sometimes, if I hear the questions out loud, it helps me. My brain is much bigger and more complex and funny than yours."

He started to pace around, but Crystal's voice came from the speaker. "Your brain is more . . . _funny?_"

"Yeah, it's funny, you got a problem with that?" The Doctor glared in Crystal's direction before continuing his pacing. "When I used my sonic on them, they ran. They can't hear particularly high or low sound frequencies; all of their senses have degraded in favor of smell. So, why did they run?"

Another rumbling sound came, and the Doctor looked back at the open door. "How many entrances are there to this laboratory?"

"Three," Kenneth said. "One there, one around the corner, and one upstairs."

"Seal them," he said. "Seal each of the exits. All three. Whatever is hunting Crystal is coming back."

He raced to the nearest door and slammed it shut. Just as he did so, something threw its weight against the door. Cursing, he locked the door and used the sonic on it. "There," he said. "Kenneth, can I call you Ken?"

After a pause, Kenneth nodded.

"All right, Ken, you get the door around the corner. Make sure it's deadlocked. Mr. Days, get the other entrance. If those things get in, we won't be able to see them, and they can get Crystal or any of us. And one thing about the Egnia Palronis . . ."

He looked at Kenneth, Mr. Days, and then Crystal, lingering on Crystal the longest, hoping that he was looking into her eyes. "They hunt to kill," he said.

Kenneth and Mr. Days stood still, watching the Doctor. "Well?" the Doctor said. "Are you going to seal the doors?"

The two men almost literally jumped into action. "Stay by those doors!" the Doctor called after them. "I'll watch this one. Nothing comes through. If something happens, anything at all, a little scratch or sniff at the door, then _let me know._"

The Doctor and Crystal watched them leave. Then the Doctor held up the screen and looked into Crystal's eyes. "Now to figure out how to get you back to normal."

"Doctor, I'm scared," Crystal whimpered. "I don't want to stay like this forever. I don't want to be hunted down by invisible wolves—"

"Egnia Palronis," the Doctor corrected helpfully.

Crystal fell silent. "Whatever," she growled. "I don't want to get hurt again, Doctor."

"Crystal." The Doctor held Crystal's face in his hands. He felt her tears roll onto his fingers. "I want you to know something. You may be in very real danger right now. But do you know what, Crystal?"

Crystal sobbed once, then quieted.

"Crystal Dean," he said solemnly. "Whatever is out there is not going to hurt you. And if they do, guess who they have to answer to?"

Crystal smiled, and her face was shown on the screen. The Doctor smiled back at her and let go of her face.

Crystal suddenly paled. "Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"What's that noise?"

The Doctor turned to the door. It was still shut. But there was another pair of lungs breathing in the room. Several other pairs of lungs.

The Doctor swept the screen around and pointed it at the pack of Egnia Palronis. They were exactly as the Doctor had explained them—stocky build, with blunt faces. They had feathery antennae as long as Crystal's arm and just as wide. Their fur was thick but very, very short, and rusty brown. The shortest of the pack came up to Crystal's waist, and the tallest up to the Doctor's.

They stood, growling, not moving at all but remaining stock-still. Like stone. Crystal hid behind the Doctor.

"I don't think that will do much good," the Doctor said. "They can smell fear—your adrenaline rushing, your blood pumping, your sweat. That's why they attacked you, and why they could pinpoint you so easily. You're afraid."

Crystal crouched lower.

The Palronis bristled, then sat down grudgingly, as if some unseen or unheard command had caused them to. The Doctor could now see collars around their necks—tight-fitting bands of leather with little devices on them.

They kept their noses pointed at the Doctor and Crystal, still emitting small barks on occasion. They fidgeted as if resisting the urge to stand up and rush at them. The Doctor, curious, edged closer to the Palronis and held out his sonic screwdriver. At a single tap of the button, they shrieked in pain and clawed at their muzzles, slinking away

"Interesting." The Doctor pocketed his sonic and looked over at Crystal. "Those collars around their necks, they emit a smell that only they can detect, and they're trained to have certain reactions in response to certain smells."

No response came. He rushed to the screen and held it up to where Crystal was standing—or had been standing. She was no longer there. Just a dark patch of blood.

The Doctor cursed his own ignorance. He had been tricked while other Palronis took Crystal. When he examined the screen more closely, he realized that the sound had been cut out. He wouldn't have been able to hear her.

The door hadn't opened, so the Palronis wouldn't have been able to leave through there. He scanned the area and saw that the trail of blood led across the room, away from him, and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. He looked up just in time to see Crystal's sneakers disappear at the top of the stairs.

Mr. Days was up there.

Why hadn't he seen it before? Mr. Days hadn't seemed horribly surprised at the power outage, or at the little computer's hard drive being wiped. And the Palronis had to have come through an entrance wide or tall enough for their antennae not to be touched—they were weird creatures like that—and the Doctor himself had put Mr. Days in charge of the upstairs door. Where Kenneth was, he wouldn't have been able to hear the Palronis come in.

The Doctor rushed up the stairs, holding out the computer in front of him. Mr. Days was crouched down, patting the head of a Palronis while others just vanished through the door he guarded.

"Mr. Days," the Doctor said crossly.

Mr. Days looked up at the Doctor, a bored look on his face. "Oh, hello, Doctor. I see you've found me out. Great job, woo hoo, and all that."

He continued to pet his Palronis, grinning into its blunt face. "I figured you wouldn't be able to find me, but apparently the way you hardwired that computer made it difficult to erase."

"That rumbling," the Doctor said, "was an electromagnet, wasn't it? It would have taken a ridiculous amount of power to charge up a magnet strong enough to erase the hard drives of every single electronic device within sixty feet. That explains the power going out."

"Ah, yes," Mr. Days said. "I was doubtful at first, but you live up to your reputation. You _are,_ truly, the Doctor."

The Doctor stiffened. "You have heard of me?"

Mr. Days stood up, taking off his glasses. He toyed with them for a moment, saying, "Most of Earth may not have heard of you, but Earth is not populated by only humans." He turned a small dial hidden on one of the hinges on his glasses, and his form shimmered before revealing his true body.

The Doctor's eyes widened at the sight of the Sabinar. He had a very humanlike build and had the same facial features as he had before, but to say that he looked like a human was like saying a dinner plate looked like a toaster. His fleshy skin was bluish-black and webbed with tiny green veins. Horns curled back from around his face. His feet were now sort of like bear's feet, only without all of the fur.

"Vincent Days," the Sabinar said. "Fitting name, don't you think? Vincent means _to conquer._ And Days? I plan to rule all of time. _To Conquer_ Days . . . I'm very pleased with the effect."

"You can't rule all of time," the Doctor said coldly. "Not if I have anything to do with it."

"Oh, but I will." Mr. Days grinned. "With my beloved Egnia Palronis, my invisible pack, at my side, I will rule over all." He gave his Palronis an affectionate pat, and it returned with a satisfied grunt. "My enemies will mysteriously be ripped apart. I will be completely innocent. And thus I will take over first America, the most powerful nation on earth—then the Earth itself!"

Mr. Days opened his mouth to continue his monologue, but the Doctor held up a hand. "Hey, listen. That sounds all . . . great, but why did you need Crystal? Why trick poor Kenneth into shooting that invisibility device at her, and her specifically?"

Mr. Days shrugged. "I did not trick that boy. I told him to aim for a squirrel. But when I discovered that she was your companion, well, I could not pass up the opportunity to lure you, my only opposition, into my trap."

The Doctor glanced at the screen of the computer. "What trap?"

Mr. Days laughed. "Kenneth only _thinks_ he invented the first invisibility ray. I was creating invisible tech with the help of these glasses ages before he was even born."

The hair on the back of the Doctor's neck prickled. On the computer screen, he saw four small, powerful-looking guns, each pointed at him. No matter where he moved, the guns still aimed at him, ready to fire.

"Some of your enemies may not put into account your regenerative abilities," Mr. Days said. "But I'm certain that if I press the button on this controller, you will be ripped to pieces by the bullets. Nothing to regenerate.

The Doctor looked warily at the four guns, two in front of him, two behind him. He could not go anywhere where he would not be tracked by the guns.

"Any last words, _Doctor?_" Mr. Days threateningly held up a little black controller. Scared, the Palronis left the room, stubby tail almost tucked between its legs.

The Doctor looked back at Mr. Days sadly. "Here are my last words," he said. "You may think that you have won. But listen. I am the _Doctor._ I am a force to be reckoned with. Even in death, I am a _force__to__be__reckoned__with__._ And do you know what?"

The Doctor's face became more triumphant. "Oh, you're thick. You're very, very dull. You, my friend, are not bright at _all._"

Mr. Days was taken aback. "Wh-what?"

The Doctor held out his arms. "You want to know something about invisibility?"

"Enough!" Mr. Days angrily pressed the button on the controller. The guns shifted, but nothing happened. The Doctor grinned. "Something about invisibility—makes it hard to make guns."

Mr. Days dropped the controller. "What?"

"The guns. Any kind of gun would be too complex to make in a limited field such as your glasses. You had to make or buy the guns and then _make_ them invisible. But that affected the mechanisms to the point where they did not work anymore."

He kicked at one of the guns and said, "So where's Crystal?"

The color drained from Mr. Days's face. "Th-the girl?"

The Doctor nodded.

Mr. Days looked scared for a moment, then he pointed at the open door that he was supposed to be guarding. The Doctor scanned his face, then snatched Mr. Day's face away and moved the tiny dial so that Mr. Days appeared human again. "I am going to let you leave," he said. "When I get back, you had better be gone, and you had better leave all your plans for temporal domination to rot to dust. But if you're here . . ."

He let the threat hang open-ended between them until it was almost palpable. With one last glare, the Doctor left through the open door and followed the sound of Crystal's shrieks to the outside.

Crystal was standing on top of Mr. Days's truck. She was holding out a metal rod that would have probably been used for crafting devices. The Palronis were circling the truck, growling up at her. She eyed them warily, occasionally swinging the rod at one of the beasts if it got too close, shouting "BACK!"

"Crystal!" the Doctor cried, racing towards her.

She looked up, and sighed in relief when she saw him. Tears streamed down her face. "Doctor, thank goodness—BACK, I said!"

She swung the rod again and edged away from the bests. "Can you please help?" she said. Her voice quivered, along with the rest of her body.

Wordlessly, the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on the Palronis. They whimpered, pawing their muzzles, and raced off into the woods.

He stepped onto the bed of the truck and held out a hand to help Crystal down. "There," he said, as she limped down onto the asphalt of the parking lot. "They won't be coming back anytime soon. They'll be whining and baying until their collar malfunctions, runs out of battery or comes off."

"What will happen to them?" Crystal asked.

"What will happen?" The Doctor blinked. "They're from Earth, remember? They live here. They can care for themselves. Unless that idiot Sabinar Days comes back, they won't have any real reason to attack humans if they keep to the wilderness."

"Sabinar?" Crystal shook her head, wincing as she grabbed her bloody arm.

"Oh," the Doctor exclaimed. "We should take care of that, shouldn't we?"

Crystal nodded. She grabbed the Doctor's arm as he aided her to the entrance of the laboratory.

* * *

><p>Mr. Days's helpless little goon, Kenneth, was more than happy to help Crystal when he discovered that he'd been working for Days—<em>an alien—<em>the whole time. He joked that he always knew that he was alien, but not that much so. The Doctor simply brushed aside the attempt at humor and impatiently asked him to call up an ambulance. He told Kenneth to keep an eye on Crystal while he went downstairs to turn off the electromagnet.

He reached the basement and saw a block of metal the size of a refrigerator, hooked up to various wires and devices that would charge it. The Doctor ripped the wires off, shutting it off immediately, and noticed a computer near the electromagnet.

Somehow, it had still functioned normally, even with the magnet. It must have been very advanced technology. The Doctor examined the line of code on the screen and remembered that the Sabinar were an almost completely technology-oriented species—being able to read the code of most computers. The Doctor read the code, a repeated pattern of 0's and 1's that spelled out _Target status: invisibility failing. Target status: invisibility failing. Target status: invisibility failing . . ._

"Of course," the Doctor murmured. True invisibility never could have lasted very long; at most, it would have lasted twenty minutes before fading. There had to be some sort of machine keeping the effect alive, and the electromagnet must have been it, or part of it.

He rushed back upstairs to the laboratory room to see that Crystal was fine—completely visible, and being attended to by paramedics. The power was returning. Crystal looked up at the Doctor from where she sat on a table and grinned.

"Hey," she said. "They told me I lost a lot of blood, but they gave me some sort of shot . . ." She looked wary for a moment. "Is it dangerous?"

"No, no," the Doctor replied. "It'll make your blood cells regenerate faster. It'll make you very tired, though—"

As if on cue, Crystal's eyes rolled back into her head and she slumped over. Kenneth caught her before she could fall and looked at her fondly. "Will she be all right?" he asked the medics.

They nodded. The one bandaging her arm cut the wrap for the last bandage and nodded at the Doctor and Kenneth. "She needs to stay on the down-low for as long as possible. If she exercises too much, she could injure herself or do damage to her internal organs."

The medics packed up their bags and said, "She'll need to be checked on in a week or so. Bring her by the hospital downtown, and we'll do our best to keep her in good health."

After they'd left, the Doctor picked up the sleeping Crystal, and her head lolled to one side. He started to leave.

"Doctor!" Kenneth called.

The Doctor turned to see him. "Yes?"

Kenneth fished for the right words. "Ah . . . thank you."

The Doctor nodded. "You're welcome." He tried to leave yet again.

"Where are you going?"

The Doctor smiled to himself. "Yes." He left Kenneth in a stupor as he walked away, through the forest, carrying Crystal as she slept on.

When Crystal came to, she was sitting in a comfy chair in the TARDIS console room. She looked up tiredly at the Doctor, who was worriedly staring at something on the engine console's screen.

"Doctor?" she said sluggishly.

The Doctor looked at her and discreetly pressed a button. "Yes?"

"What were you looking at?"

"Nothing." The Doctor tilted the screen. "Look, see? Nothing. Just the outside."

Crystal saw the trees outside and the puffy white clouds in the sky, but nothing else. She was still suspicious.

"Where to next?" she asked, starting to get up. The Doctor held out a hand to signal her to stay put, and she realized that just trying to stand up exacted much on her energy.

"Well," the Doctor said, "I was thinking about the planet Viridian. Lovely place, populated almost entirely by the evolved form of dogs. Or, or or or, we could visit Theyar, an almost parallel Earth. It's scary; if you read the history books parallel with Earth history books, there are wars, nations, advancements, and even names that are very similar. Or," he added with a smirk, "we could visit Midnight."

"Midnight?"

"A diamond planet. Gorgeous. Has some of the most amazing spa's and resorts in the universe. Shall we go?"

Crystal nodded eagerly.

"Well, hold on tight." The Doctor pulled a lever, and said a word. A word that Crystal did not recognize, but which she would learn to love.

"Allons-y!"


End file.
